Bean Rock Lighthouse, erected on a reef in the Waitemata Harbour in 1871, is nationally significant as New Zealand’s oldest surviving timber-built lighthouse and the only remaining wave-washed lighthouse in the country. Reflecting a new approach to lighthouse-building in the late 1860s and early 1870s using less permanent materials, it has served as an important navigational aid in one of New Zealand’s busiest harbours since the period when shipping dominated the country’s connections with the rest of the world. The structure’s unusual design incorporating ‘cottage’ style accommodation and a surmounting light, all suspended above the water on an open frame, is believed to be a rare survivor internationally. The most publicly visible of all New Zealand lighthouses, it forms a notable part of an important historic maritime landscape and can be considered an iconic landmark in the Auckland region.

Known to Maori as Te Toka o Kapetaua, Bean Rock was given its European name after Lieutenant Bean, a crew-member on the H.M.S Herald in 1840. The rock, which is exposed during low tide, was a considerable hazard for early European vessels. It was initially marked with a red perch and black buoy, but when traffic in the harbour continued to increase in the 1860s, partly due to the gold rush on the Coromandel Peninsula, the Auckland Provincial Council decided to construct a lighthouse on the rock.

Initial plans were drawn up by James Balfour, the Chief Engineer for the Marine Department and Superintendent of Lighthouses. Evidently influenced by Canadian precedents, Balfour pioneered the design of structures made from timber, considering it important for the coast to be lit rapidly, even if the lighthouses did not last as long. After Balfour drowned in 1869, his ideas were apparently incorporated into completed plans by Auckland’s first city engineer, James Stewart, who by that time had become Inspector of Steamers for the General Government. Stewart (1832-1914), also played a key role in the design of lighthouses at Ponui Passage (Sandspit), Kawau Rock and Manukau Heads before becoming Resident Engineer for the Auckland Public Works Department with responsibility for all railway projects in the province. The structure’s dioptric kerosene light was manufactured by Messrs. Chance Brothers of Birmingham, and its associated lantern was undertaken by James Dove and Company to specifications by the internationally-renowned firm, D. & T. Stevenson of Edinburgh.

William Cameron’s tender for the construction of the lighthouse at a cost of £2,445 was accepted on 4 August 1870. The design was considered technically challenging and innovative, combining robust foundations raised to the level of the high-water mark, with an economical and lightweight structure. The upper part of the lighthouse comprised a hexagonal, board and batten three-room kauri ‘cottage’ surmounted by a hexagonal lighting chamber, both with surrounding cantilevered verandahs. The structure was mounted on an open timber tower, also hexagonal, that incorporated cast-iron tubular piles. The base was reinforced using masonry quarried from nearby Rangitoto Island.

Bean Rock Lighthouse was officially lit on 24 July 1871. Hugh Brown was the first of a number of lighthouse keepers who lived in the highly confined structure and maintained its kerosene lamp. The New Zealand Marine Department took responsibility for the lighthouse in 1876. In 1912, the structure was handed over to the Auckland Harbour Board, which immediately installed an acetylene light, making it the first automated lighthouse in the country and removing the need for a resident keeper. An electric cable was connected to the lighthouse from the shore in 1936, increasing by fivefold the power of its light.

In 1985, the Auckland Harbour Board restored the structure after public opposition to its proposed demolition and replacement. The lighthouse was taken ashore for the necessary work, which included re-roofing and the replacement of some external cladding. After its return to Bean Rock, the renovated structure was placed on new timber legs with concrete foundation posts. The structure remains in use as a navigational aid, currently incorporating a solar-powered light.